Sunday, 9/21/14
If you don’t mind, I would like to stay with that first reading
from Chapter 55 of Isaiah. I will even expand on it, looking at the following
verses that are not included in our reading from the Lectionary.
God told us, “My
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways. As high as the
heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my
thoughts above your thoughts.”
Isaiah, in the following passage, revealed to us that God is
constantly prompting our hearts to do good constructive things. Those
promptings are what the catechism used to call Actual Graces. To give us an idea of how insistent God is with his promptings, Isaiah compared their frequency
to the abundance of the raindrops God showers on his earth. He made this point
with lines of poetic beauty:
“For just as from the
heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have
watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows,
and bread to him who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from, my mouth. It shall mot return to me void, but shall do m
y will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
God does not speak to us in words we can quote as having
come from him, but he is constantly urging us to do kind, helpful deeds. He is prompting us to
avoid lazy and self-centered behavior.
To the degree that we obey his promptings we will live happy
lives, to the degree we ignore them we will be unhappy. But, we cannot
frustrate God’s good will toward his creatures. If you and I ignore his
promptings, it will be our loss; but he will find others to carry out his sweet
designs for mankind.
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